Home Alone 2, the Die Hardening
by Pawhedge
Summary: Sendak is and Haxus have successfully left Arus atmosphere with the castleship, and all the lions. All seems to be going well. Except, they are not alone. (M for Pidge's swearing and a tiny bit of gore)


Since Pidge is my favorite and I like watching her suffer, I decided to make a little AU. In this universe when Sendak tries to take over the castle (season one episode 4 and 5) he is at least somewhat move successful, and Pidge has to defend the castleship by herself until the rest of the team can rescue her. Happy reading!

* * *

The room was practically vibrating with power, a loud sort of building sound resonating- like the slow start up of a particularly old car, but a thousand times scarier.

The bright ball of light centered directly in the middle of the massive room didn't look like your average generator- but from what little Pidge understood, it supposedly controlled the castles energy. It was astonishingly cold in the room, the chill even reaching Pidges skin through her armor, and the closer she got to the ball of energy, the lower the temperature dropped. It seemed obviously dangerous. Needless to say Pidge was tasked with disabling it, which sadly, involved her running towards it, only stopping about halfway across the catwalk.

"Okay Allura I'm near the turbine- I think it started!" Pidge spoke quickly, hazel eyes fliting over every aspect of the room. What was this thing made of that it could chill and entire room this big? How did they manage to sustain some weird sphere of energy like this in an open room with no apparent barriers? How could you control a seemingly magical energy source like this reliably? She'd have to ask Coran later she supposed, when the ship wasn't currently being taken over by big fuzzy purple aliens. If he and Hunk ever even made it back- god there were so many things that could go wrong- Pidge felt the sweat under her arms slowly begin to dry (or crystalize or freeze or _whatever_ happens to sweat in bizarrely cold alien generators) and scowled- it was times like these she wished her body would tone it down a bit with all the sweating.

"Then you'll have to hurry- cross the catwalk to the main column in the center." God, how'd Allura manage to sound so calm? Her voice was slow and steady; even as Pidge was sure the Altean could hear Pidges frantic breathing from the other line.

Pidge ran forward again, nearing the pulsating orb of light, dread filling her stomach like stones until every step was heavy. She wasn't an engineer like Hunk, but she'd wager that this thing had enough power to blackout a city considering the kind of mass it was supposedly built to lift- she didn't exactly want her tiny body to get in the way of that. If this thing was an unstoppable force, then she wasn't exactly an immovable object. Pidge halted, her clicking boots barely registering to her ears under the ever-present hum that filled the air.

"Okay" Pidge affirmed, nervously glancing over the machine. She had no idea what to do with something like this- it barely had any resemblance to earth tech- which weirdly, the rest of the ships technology seemed to have. If she had to guess she'd probably say that this part of the castle was built quite a bit after the rest, thus its advance appearance, and incompatibility with the more simple earth machines she was used to- though at this point, she was just shooting in the dark for answers to stuff far out of her scope.

"Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub, and enter the following sequence." Pidge did as she was told, crouching down to look at the turbines insides. They didn't really make any sense and Pidge felt a rising tide of panic- how the fuck was she supposed to shut this thing down?!

"Wait, wait, wait, wait- which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!" Pidge desperately wished she had any knowledge of the Altean language, but it possessed no similarities to English that she could see.

Suddenly the generator started to glow, the pulsating noise becoming louder and increasingly more alarming- giant spikes of blue electricity shooting into the sphere, the smell of burning ozone trickling in through the green paladins filters. This was bad- it was starting! Pidge's heart felt like a jack hammer in her chest- she had to do something!

"I can't tell which one it is! " Pidge gasped out, eyes scanning the machine for any slight clue. Allura did not respond. Pidge felt like throwing up, her muscles twitching beneath her suit in stress.

"Allura? Allura!" Pidge yelled to no one, her comm's seemingly disabled from the sheer power of the energy sphere. Oh god oh god- Pidge stood up, gazing at the lightshow in front of her with fear- her fingers growing numb from the sudden spike of cold generated. This thing was huge- it was _massive_ , and it was gonna consume her tiny fleshy body in less than a minute if she didn't figure out a god damned way to stop it! Not to mention, even if it did simply stop at this size automatically, then she was still screwed anyway- the ship would leave the atmosphere and presumably fly straight towards Galra headquarters- where they would find her and capture her, and torture her like they did Shiro, except she wouldn't live because there was no way in hell she could survive in a arena like he had- ahhh focus! She had to focus!

Pidge desperately looked down at the hologram monitor, the odd designs and symbols meaning nothing to her- her eyes seeing but not quite comprehending anything- she was gonna fucking die- The ship was shaking so hard it felt like an earthquake had decided to hit her specifically- it was taking off!

Urgently the green paladin dropped to her knees, looking for something, anything that could possibly give her insight on how to stop this thing from leaving the atmosphere- a low panicked hum escaping her lips. God it was cold in here- Pidge could barely stopped the shivers that threatened to envelope her body- should she waste time activating her bayard and gaining some heat from its light? Was that stupid- she couldn't think- wait- wait! The bayard! Pidge tugged her weapon out of its holster clumsily glancing at it nervously- this could work? Potentially? Pidge felt an odd sense of calm numbness sweep over her (was this what being in shock felt like?) well at least she had a solution. It might also get her killed, but at this point that seemed like an end result no matter what happened so-

" _Whatever_ " Pidge plunged her bayard into the generator.

The result was instant and blindingly painful. It was like fire had encased her hand, like tiny sharp nails were moving up and down her skin- it was like- it-

everything… hurt…she had.. t.o….

… …sa..f..te..y..

* * *

The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer freezing. The second thing she noticed was that her arm _**hurt**_. Pidge gasped, sitting up suddenly from the pain, her eyes clenched shut. It was a blunt, throbbing, _aching_ feeling- her arm skin cold and heavy and like it was being crushed between layers of thick ice. Pidge let out a whimper, breathing in harshly through her mouth. Fuck. _Fuck._

What- what was going on, why did her arm- Pidge slowly forced an eyelid open, peering nervously at her the offending appendage. She couldn't see what it looked like because it was still in her paladin armour…paladin armour, used to fight-Fuck.

Pidge moaned as she remembered what she had just done. Shoving her hand straight into a deadly machine that helped power a giant alien castleship. Not her smartest move. Pidge laughed hysterically, before clamping her good hand over her mouth. She was still in the castle. In some sort of air vent? Which could mean that the Galra were still here, so she had to be more carefu-

Pidge closed her eyes for a second, suddenly overtaken by an all-consuming throbbing pain. She took a few moments to breathe deeply and slowly. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. In. Out. In. Out.

…Wh-how bad off was it, to hurt this much? And what even was her injury anyway? It was like getting a burn so hot it felt cold, except it stayed that way, like she was sticking her entire side into a freezer and shutting the door. But, she had been electrocuted right? And as far as she had experienced that normally felt more like a burn depending on the seriousness of the shock. But then, the generator had seemed to produce some sort of temperature dropping effect.

Pidge glared at her right side, watching the stillness of her arm carefully. She should try to move it. She needed to see how badly it was damaged after all. Pidge sighed, but took a deep breath in- she had to get a move on eventually, it was best she start. Pidge cautiously attempted to move her finger. Nothing. Shit.


End file.
